Gerardus Mercator Gerardus Mercator Gerardus Mercator A Biography of Flemish Cartography Gerardus Mercator Illustration depicts Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator (born Gerard de Kremer, 1512 - 1594), with a globe and compass in his hands. He devised a design format for geographic maps, now called Mercator projection, for his 1569 world map. (Photo from Stock Montage / Contributor / Getty Images) By Amanda Briney Gerardus Mercator was a Flemish cartographer, philosopher and geographer who was best known for his creation of the Mercator map projection . On the Mercator projection parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude are drawn as straight lines so that they are useful for navigation. Mercator was also known for his development of the term “atlas” for a collection of maps and his skill in calligraphy, engraving, publishing and making of scientific instruments ( Monmonier 2004 ). In addition, Mercator had an interests in mathematics, astronomy, cosmography, terrestrial magnetism, history and theology (Monmonier 2004).

Today Mercator is mostly thought of as a cartographer and geographer and his map projection was used for hundreds of years as the quintessential way to depict the Earth. Many maps using the Mercator projection are still used in classrooms today, despite the development of newer, more accurate map projections . Early Life and Education continue reading below our video What are the Seven Wonders of the World Gerardus Mercator was born on March 5, 1512 in Rupelmond, County of Flanders (modern-day Belgium). His name at birth was Gerard de Cremer or de Kremer ( Encyclopedia Britannica ). Mercator is the Latin form of this name and means “merchant” ( Wikipedia.org ). Mercator grew up in the Duchy of Julich and was educated Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands where he received training in the Christian doctrine as well as Latin and other dialects. In 1530 Mercator began studying at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium where he studied humanities and philosophy. He graduated with his master’s degree in 1532.

Around this time Mercator began to have doubts about the religious aspect of his education because he could not combine what he was taught about the origin of the universe with that of Aristotle’s and other more scientific beliefs (Encyclopedia Britannica). After his two years away in Belgium for his master’s degree Mercator returned to Leuven with an interest in philosophy and geography. At this time Mercator began studying with Gemma Frisius, a theoretical mathematician, physician and astronomer, and Gaspar a Myrica, an engraver and goldsmith. Mercator eventually mastered mathematics, geography and astronomy and his work, combined with that of Frisius and a Myrica made Leuven a center for the development of globes, maps and astronomical instruments (Encyclopedia Britannica). Professional Development By 1536 Mercator had proven himself as an excellent engraver, calligrapher and instrument maker. From 1535-1536 he participated in a project to create a terrestrial globe and in 1537 he worked on a celestial globe. Most of Mercator’s work on the globes consisted of the labelling of features with italic lettering.

Throughout the 1530’s Mercator continued to develop into a skilled cartographer and the terrestrial and celestial globes helped to cement his reputation as the leading geographer of that century. In 1537 Mercator created a map of the Holy Land and in 1538 he made a map of the world on a double heart-shaped or cordiform projection (Encyclopedia Britannica). In 1540 Mercator designed a map of Flanders and published a manual on italic lettering called, Literarum Latinarum quas Italicas Cursoriasque Vocant Scribende Ratio. In 1544 Mercator was arrested and charged with heresy because of his many absences from Leuven to work on his maps and his beliefs toward Protestantism (Encyclopedia Britannica). He was later released due to university support and he was allowed to continue persuing his scientific studies and print and publish books. In 1552 Mercator moved to Duisburg in the Duchy of Cleve and assisted in the creation of a grammar school.

Throughout the 1550’s Mercator also worked on genealogical research for Duke Wilhelm, wrote a Concordance of the Gospels, and compose several other works. In 1564 Mercator created a map of Lorraine and the British Isles. In the 1560’s Mercator began to develop and perfect his own map projection in an effort to help merchants and navigators more effectively plan a course over long distances by plotting it on straight lines. This projection became known as the Mercator projection and was used on his map of the world in 1569. Later Life and Death In 1569 and throughout the 1570’s Mercator began a series of publications to describe the creation of the world through maps. In 1569 he published a chronology of the world from Creation to 1568 (Encyclopedia Britannica). In 1578 he published another which consisted of 27 maps that were originally produced by Ptolemy . The next section was published in 1585 and consisted of newly created maps of France, Germany and the Netherlands.

This section was followed by another in 1589 that included maps of Italy, “Sclavonia” (the present-day Balkans), and Greece (Encyclopedia Britannica). Mercator died on December, 2, 1594, but his son aided in the production of the final section of his father’s atlas in 1595. This section included maps of the British Isles. Mercator’s Legacy Following its final section being printed in 1595 Mercator’s atlas was re-printed in 1602 and again in 1606 when it was named the “Mercator-Hondius Atlas.” Mercator’s atlas was one of the first to include maps of the world’s development and it, along with his projection remain as significant contributions to the fields of geography and cartography. To learn more about Gerardus Mercator and his map projection, read Mark Monmonier’s Rhumb Lines and Map Wars: A Social History of the Mercator Projection. Gerard Mercator biography -- Mercator's Resume by Mark Monmonier Chapter 3 Mercator’s Résumé Gerard Mercator was more than just a mapmaker.

Although biographical dictionaries accustomed to single occupations typically treat him as merely a cartographer or a geographer, Mercator distinguished himself at various times as a calligrapher, an engraver, a maker of scientific instruments, and a publisher. No less impressive are his deep interests in mathematics, astronomy, cosmography, terrestrial magnetism, history, philosophy, and theology. Although biographers lament the lack of diaries, account books, and carefully archived personal correspondence, the historical record reveals Mercator as an introspective and energetic chap who was competent in science, honest and well liked, technically savvy and clever with his hands, curious about the world around him, successful as an entrepreneur, and well positioned to make a pair of substantial contributions to mapmaking. Mercator’s first biographer was Walter Ghim, his neighbor in Duisburg, the small German city where he lived from 1552 until his death in 1594. A twelve-term mayor of the town, Ghim contributed a short biography to the 1595 edition of Mercator’s Atlas, published posthumously by his youngest son, Rumold. Ghim’s essay is more a long obituary than a critical biography.

The mayor praises Mercator as a “remarkable and distinguished man,” notes his “mild character and honest way of life,” and provides dates and other details for key events in the cartographer’s career. Thus we learn that Gerard Mercator was born at approximately 6 a.m. on March 5, 1512, in Rupelmonde, Flanders, where his parents Hubert and Emerentiana were visiting Hubert’s brother, Gisbert Mercator, “the energetic priest of that city.” (Flanders is roughly coincident with the northern part of present-day Belgium, and as figure 3.1 shows, the village of Rupelmonde is about ten miles southwest of Antwerp.) He died “82 years, 37 weeks, and 6 hours” later—a remarkably long life for the sixteenth century—after coping in his final years with partial paralysis and a cerebral hemorrhage. Ghim offers a detailed description of Mercator’s failing health and last rites but says little about the mapmaker’s early life. Places Mercator lived or visited (larger lettering), with present-day international boundaries and additional cities (smaller labels) as a frame of reference.

Scholarly interpretations of sixteenth-century Flanders helped historian of calligraphy Arthur Osley paint a richer picture. Although Mercator’s parents had little money—his father was a shoemaker and small farmer—Gisbert was at least better connected. Through his uncle’s influence, Gerard was enrolled at age fifteen in the distinguished monastic school at ’s-Hertogenbosch run by the Brethren of the Common Life, who accepted poor but bright boys willing to train for the priesthood. The brothers specialized in copying sacred texts, and their school excelled at teaching penmanship. In addition to learning Christian theology and Latin, Mercator developed a practical and lasting interest in the elegant italic script in which he engraved place names and interpretative text for his maps. He considered italic lettering more appropriate for scholarly writing than Gothic and other less formal (and often less legible) styles of handwriting, and in 1540 he published Literarum latinarum, quas Italicas cursoriasque vocant, scribendarum ratio (How to Write the Latin Letters Which They Call Italic or Cursive), a short manual that was influential in the adoption of italic lettering in cartography. Various renderings of Mercator’s name invite confusion.

Although his German father apparently went by Hubert Cremer, vernacular versions of the family name include de Cremer, Kramer, and Kremer. Krämer (the modern spelling) is the German word for merchant or shopkeeper, Cremer is its Dutch equivalent, and Mercator is the Latin version, which the future mapmaker adopted at ’s-Hertogenbosch. (Latin was the language of Europe’s educated elite, and young scholars routinely latinized their names.) Although Gerhard Cremer and Gerardus (or Gerhardus) Mercator might be more historically correct, American and British cartographic historians prefer the partly anglicized Gerard Mercator. A reasonable compromise, I’m sure, as an obsessive purist would need to write awkwardly about Gerardus Mercator Rupelmundanus (Gerard Mercator of Rupelmonde), the name under which Mercator enrolled at the University of Louvain in 1530 and published his epic world atlas. At Louvain Mercator studied humanities and philosophy, attended lectures by the brilliant mathematician and astronomer Gemma Frisius (1508-55), and received a master’s degree in 1532.

With his religious faith challenged by contradictions between biblical accounts of creation and Aristotle’s writings, Mercator occasionally felt stifled at Louvain, where doubt was akin to heresy. He began corresponding with a group of Franciscan preachers living in Antwerp and Mechelen (see fig. 3.1), and visited them several times to discuss theology and science. His confidants included Franciscus Monachus (ca. 1490-1565), a prominent geographer who produced a terrestrial globe around 1520 and is a plausible source of Mercator’s knowledge of northern lands. Although his absences from Louvain aroused suspicion, Mercator eventually resolved his concerns over the conflicting interpretations and, according to Osley, “emerged with strong Christian convictions, which remained with him.” Reluctant to leave Louvain, Mercator pursued an academic apprenticeship centuries before the modern university gave us postgraduate education. In addition to convincing Frisius to instruct him in astronomy and geography, Mercator and his tutor persuaded Gaspar van der Heyden, a local goldsmith and engraver, to let Mercator use his workshop for making globes and scientific instruments.

The three apparently collaborated on numerous projects, including maps and surgical instruments—Frisius was also a physician—and the future mapmaker either contributed to or witnessed all phases, from design to marketing. As Osley observes, by age twenty-four Mercator had become “a superb engraver, an outstanding calligrapher, and one of the leading scientific instrument makers of his time.” And as his later works attest, skill in engraving gradations and labels on brass and copper instruments proved useful in making printing plates for maps and globe gores. An energetic learner, Mercator progressed quickly from globes to flat maps and from engraving to full authorship. In 1536 he engraved the italic lettering for Frisius’s terrestrial globe, which was assembled by pasting twelve printed gores onto a spherical papier-mché shell nearly 15 inches (37 cm) in diameter. His role expanded from engraver to coauthor with the publication a year later of Frisius’s celestial globe, similar in size and manufacture.

In 1537 he also authored and published his own map, a 17 by 39 inch (43 by 98 cm) cartographic portrait of Palestine engraved on copper and printed as six sheets, which formed a wall-size map when glued together. Mercator’s enduring interest in religion was no doubt a key motivation. Although he cites Jacob Zeigler as his principal source, the small map included with Zeigler’s book on the Holy Land, published five years earlier, is comparatively sketchy. Cartographic historian Robert Karrow, who labeled the map a “commercial success,” notes that it remained in print for at least four decades and provided the geographic details for Palestine for Mercator’s epic world map of 1569. A modern rendering by John Snyder of the double-cordiform projection used for Mercator's 1538 world map. Reduced slightly from Snyder, Flattening the Earth, 37, fig. 1.27. In 1538 Mercator published a 14 by 21 inch (36 by 55 cm) world map, laid down on the double cordiform (double heart-shaped) projection (fig.

3.2) pioneered in 1531 by the French mathematician Oronce Fine (1494-1555). Although Mercator borrowed the geographic framework from Fine, his map is more similar in content to Frisius’s terrestrial globe. As close examination of its features and place names reveals, he consulted additional sources but was the first to identify North and South America as separate continents. Also noteworthy are the suggestion of a Northwest Passage and the separation of Asia and North America, typically attached on early-sixteenth-century world maps. Aware of the uncertainty of some delineations, he scrupulously differentiated known, previously mapped coastlines from their more speculative counterparts in areas largely unexplored. Mercator’s next publication was a detailed 34 by 46 inch (87 by 117 cm) map of Flanders, printed as four sheets in 1540. Prepared at the urging of Flemish merchants, the map was based on precise trigonometric and field surveys.

Although some historians attribute the measurements to Mercator, who no doubt engraved the copper plates, others question whether the impoverished artisan had the time and resources for extensive fieldwork during the harsh winters of 1537-38 and 1539-40. A key skeptic is Rolf Kirmse, who observed that the distances portrayed are off by only 3.4 percent on average and that the average error of the angles is a mere 2° 20′. According to Kirmse, the timing of the surveys and their high level of accuracy point to Jacob van Deventer (ca. 1500-1575), a Dutch mapmaker who lived in Mechelen in the late 1530s and later produced a unique collection of town plans of the Netherlands for the king of Spain. Whoever the surveyor, there is no dispute about the map’s success and influence. Among the fifteen subsequent editions published between 1555 and 1594 is a smaller adaptation included in the 1570 world atlas by Abraham Ortelius (1527-98), a genial contemporary of Mercator.

In August 1536 Mercator married Barbara Schellekens, and the following year Barbara gave birth to their first son, Arnold. The couple eventually had six children, three boys and three girls. All three sons became mapmakers for a time at least, and Rumold (ca. 1541-1600), their youngest, became his father’s representative in England and supervised publication of the first complete edition of the Mercator world atlas. Although prosperous and comparatively erudite, sixteenth-century Flanders was frequently engulfed in conflict between Protestant reformers and Catholic traditionalists, who in 1544 began a brutal effort to suppress Protestantism. Mercator’s letters to the friars in Mechelen as well as his more recent travels attracted the attention of religious extremists, who imprisoned him at Rupelmonde in March 1544. The zealots also held forty-two other suspects, including Joannes Drosius, to whom Mercator had dedicated his 1538 world map.

Although protests by the mapmaker’s friends, colleagues, town officials, and a local priest won his release seven months later for lack of evidence, four of his fellow detainees were beheaded, burned at the stake, or buried alive. Mercator’s religion remains ambiguous. Some writers consider him a Protestant (possibly a Lutheran convert), while others insist he remained a committed Catholic. Ghim and Osley ignore the mapmaker’s church affiliation altogether, Karrow confesses uncertainty, and the late Richard Westfall, who compiled the entry on Mercator for the Catalog of the Scientific Community Web site, emphatically states, “I find it impossible to tell.” Mercator was released from his imprisonment into Catholic territory, Westfall notes, but eight years later he left Louvain for Duisburg, in Cleve (a German duchy about fifty miles east of Flanders), which was Protestant. Even so, Catholic patrons continued to sponsor his projects and buy his maps. Although religious unrest or outright persecution might have precipitated the move, the immediate incentive was a job offer from William, Duke of Cleve, who planned to open a university in Duisburg.

Although the duke’s academy never developed, royal and commercial patrons continued to underwrite Mercator’s globes, maps, and scientific instruments. Especially significant is his 1554 map of Europe, which he started in Louvain. Engraved in copper and printed as fifteen separate sheets, the entire map measures 47 by 58 inches (120 by 147 cm) and, according to the ever enthusiastic Walter Ghim, a revised edition published in 1572 “attracted more praise from scholars everywhere than any similar geographical work which has ever been brought out.” The 1554 edition’s portrayal of Britain underscores the difficulty of obtaining accurate geographic information about a country that feared invasion. According to Peter Barber, the British Library’s expert in medieval and early modern maps, Mercator relied heavily on existing maps, including a 1546 map of England published in Rome by George Lily, as well as reports from various unnamed correspondents, including the British astronomer-mathematician John Dee, who lived in Louvain from 1538 to 1540.

Although his correspondents helped him add place names and refine coastlines, Mercator’s treatment does not mirror the markedly more accurate geometry of unpublished British surveys of the late 1540s and early 1550s. More surprising is the omission of several bishoprics that Henry VIII had established after he broke with Rome—surprising because Mercator, now living in Duisburg, had little to fear from church authorities. In Barber’s view, the omission reflects either ignorance of the bishoprics or a reluctance to antagonize a generous supporter, Cardinal Grenvelle, to whom Mercator dedicated the map. More impressively accurate is Mercator’s 1564 map of England, Scotland, and Ireland, printed on eight sheets, which compose a 35 by 50 inch (88 by 127 cm) wall map. A curious inscription attributes its content to a prototype mysteriously acquired from an anonymous acquaintance.

According to Ghim, “a distinguished friend sent Mercator from England a map of the British Isles, which he had compiled with immense industry and the utmost accuracy, with a request that he should engrave it.” Neither Mercator nor Ghim named the source, whose identity sparked the curiosity of map historians who, as Barber tells it, eagerly enlisted in a game of “find the friend.” After analyzing place names, shapes, and other details together and carefully assessing information available to plausible informants, Barber attributed the draft to John Elder, a Scottish Catholic who traveled freely between England and mainland Europe. Elder had access to the Royal Library, where he apparently compiled the map from ostensibly top-secret drawings by English surveyors. According to Barber’s hypothesis, Elder left England in late 1561, amid growing hostility between the Catholic and Protestant supporters of Mary Stuart and Elizabeth I, and gave the map to Cardinal de Lorraine, who persuaded Mercator to make the engraving. Although powerful patrons like the Cardinal no doubt initiated specific projects, serendipitous influences were at least equally important.

For example, Mercator’s famous 1569 world map, discussed in greater detail in the next chapter, was at least partly encouraged by his appointment to teach mathematics, as a part-time volunteer, in the gymnasium (high school) established by Duisburg’s city council in 1559. Mercator designed a three-year course that included geometry, surveying, and mathematical astronomy, and he taught the entire sequence once before surrendering the position to his second son, Bartholomew. A second example is his appointment around 1564 as cosmographer to the Duke of Jlich, Cleve, and Berg. According to Karrow, this nomination inspired Mercator to plan an enormous series of works on geography, cosmography, and history. The first part to be published was the Chronology (1569), an attempt to establish an accurate framework for world history. The Chronology included tables of solar and lunar eclipses and a conscientiously researched chronological list of political, cultural, scientific, and biblical events. Committed to completeness, Mercator earned a place on the Church’s list of banned books by including events associated with Martin Luther and a few other heretics.

Based on a 1574 portrait, this elegant engraving of Gerard Mercator measuring a globe was first printed in the 1584 edition of Ptolemy's Geography. It also appeared in the 1595 edition of Mercator's Atlas. From Averdunk and Mller-Reinhard, "Gerard Mercator," frontispiece. As a second installment of his vast, comprehensive work, Mercator published an authentic version of Ptolemy’s Geography, deliberately devoid of the distracting interpretations and misinterpretations by earlier editors intent on improving the Egyptian geographer’s seminal work. Mercator’s goal was an accurate portrait of Ptolemy’s second-century view of the world. To understand the present, the mapmaker believed, one must appreciate the past. The atlas, published in 1578, included Ptolemy’s twenty-seven maps, carefully restored, handsomely engraved, and supplemented by an index of place names and an enlarged boundary map of the Nile Delta. The maps vary slightly in size, with the typical display measuring approximately 13 by 18 inches (34 by 46 cm).

Seven subsequent editions, published between 1584 and 1730, attest to the book’s importance to scholars. An engraved portrait of Mercator holding a globe and dividers (fig. 3.3) suggests that the mapmaker, now in his seventies, had become a brand name in geographic publishing. While working on Ptolemy’s Geography, Mercator had started to compile maps for his celebrated world atlas, which would provide the modern geographical component of the massive treatise he envisioned. Resolving discrepancies between sources and engraving most of the plates himself was a slow process, especially for a seventy-year-old mapmaker.

Trading off delay and fragmentation, he published Atlas sive Cosmographi Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati Figura (Atlas, or Cosmographic Meditations on the Fabric of the World and the Figure of the Fabrick’d) in three installments: a 1585 edition, with 51 maps focused largely on France, Germany, and the Low Countries; a 1589 volume, with 23 maps taking in Italy and Greece; and the complete, 1595 edition, which reprinted the 74 maps issued earlier and added 28 new maps covering most of the remaining parts of Europe. Because the atlas lacks detailed maps of Spain and Portugal, “complete” is misleading. Mercator no doubt desired a more comprehensive treatment of Europe, but time was running out. Weakened by strokes in 1590 and 1593, he died on December 2, 1594, leaving completion to his son Rumold and grandsons Gerard, Johann, and Michael.

In addition to supervising printing, Rumold authored a world map and a regional map of Europe, Gerard signed regional maps of Africa and Asia, and Michael contributed a map of America. The project also provided employment for local artisans, who hand-colored the maps. Like other mapmakers, Mercator relied on colorists, mostly women, to enhance his otherwise bland line engravings. What took so long? The late Clara LeGear, an atlas authority at the U.S. Library of Congress, identified four impediments: Mercator’s need to support himself with other projects, the difficulty of obtaining reliable geographic details, the slow pace of meticulous map engraving, and a shortage of skilled copperplate engravers. Mercator not only compiled all the maps for the atlas but also engraved the printing plates, with only occasional help from his grandson Johann and Frans Hogenberg, a skilled artisan who engraved most of the seventy maps for Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theater of the Whole World), published in 1570 by Abraham Ortelius, a publisher and map seller living in Antwerp. Although a competitor, Ortelius was also a close friend of Mercator.

So close, according to Walter Ghim, that Mercator deliberately delayed his own atlas. As Ghim tells it, Mercator “had drawn up a considerable number of models with his pen” and could easily have had them engraved. Yet he held up publication until Ortelius “had sold a large quantity of Theatrum…and had subsequently increased his fortune with the profits from it.” A nice story, perhaps, but the tedium of map engraving as well as the fifteen years between Theatrum and the first installment of Mercator’s Atlas suggests Ghim was spinning a yarn. In pioneering the notion of a consciously organized book of mainly maps with a standard format printed in uniform editions of several hundred copies, Ortelius has a stronger claim than Mercator to the title Father of the Modern World Atlas. According to map historian Jim Ackerman, the innovative ingredient was Theatrum’s structure, not its format. After all, bound collections of portolan charts copied by hand had been around for more than a century, and books of printed maps published by Martin Waldseemller (1470-1522) and others in the early sixteenth century clearly qualify as atlases.

What is noteworthy is Ortelius’s demonstration of atlas making as a systematic process orchestrated by an editor who selects information, standardizes content, and maintains quality. Ortelius and Mercator had decidedly different views of the editor’s role. Whereas Ortelius relied largely on readily available sources, which he selected for reengraving, Mercator energetically sought new source materials and authored original maps, which he personally designed and engraved. Unencumbered by this spirit of scholarship, Theatrum not only beat Atlas onto the market but was so much more successful at the outset that Akerman considers it “remarkable that Mercator’s name [for a book of maps] should have eventually triumphed.” The title page of Mercator's 1595 Atlas honors the mythic Atlas. Remarkable perhaps, but hardly inexplicable. The “Atlas” of Mercator’s title commemorates an ancient ruler of Mauritania. In classical mythology, the immortal Atlas was forced to atone for his role in an unsuccessful revolt by supporting the heavens on his shoulders. In Mercator’s interpretation, Atlas was really a mere mortal magnified to legendary proportions for his accomplishments in science and philosophy.

Although Mercator’s mythology is questionable, Atlas as a geographer and cosmographer provided an appropriate visual metaphor for the title page (fig. 3.4) of a massive work based on the hard work and persistence of the first truly hands-on atlas editor. In the expanded edition of Mercator's Atlas published in 1606 by Jodocus Hondius and his sons, this engraved portrait of Mercator and Hondius signified the merger of two important cartographic trademarks. From Averdunk and Müller-Reinhard, "Gerard Mercator," pl. 18. As a word for a book of maps, atlas might have vanished shortly after Mercator’s grandsons brought out a second complete edition of the Atlas in 1602. Apparently disappointed by sales, they sold the plates to the family of Jodocus Hondius (1563-1612), who ran a successful engraving and publishing business in Amsterdam. Hondius and his sons had a two-fold strategy for challenging the less meaty but still popular Theatrum. In 1606 they published a new, more geographically complete edition with forty additional maps.

Recognizing the value of a brand name, Hondius listed Mercator as the author and himself as the publisher. A contrived engraving of the two collaborators seated at a table with globes and dividers (fig. 3.5) reinforced the continuity. To lower the cost of engraving, printing, and hand coloring, the Atlas maps, which measured about 14 by 18 inches, were simplified and reengraved to roughly 7 by 9 inches and published as the Atlas minor, a less expensive version introduced in 1607 and modeled after pocket-sized editions of Ortelius’s Theatrum. Translation of Mercator’s Latin narrative into Dutch, French, German, and English created a still wider market for the thirty editions of the full-size Mercator-Hondius Atlas published between 1606 and 1641. The Atlas minor enjoyed an even longer run in the twenty-five editions Hondius and his successors published between 1607 and 1738. By 1700 numerous other publishers were issuing atlases, and the term was well established.

An excerpt from Mercator's map of Brabant, Jülich, and Cleve showing Duisburg (bottom center) and part of Cleve, as portrayed in the electronic edition of his 1595 Atlas published in color by Octavo, "Examine Disc," 155. Perhaps the most compelling evidence of the Atlas’s endurance is its recent republication in CD format. In 2000 Octavo Digital Editions, an Oakland, California, firm headed by software designer John Warnock, issued a two-disc facsimile edition easily navigated with Adobe Acrobat Reader, the widely used electronic page-viewing application that Warnock helped develop. The “Read Disc” links Mercator’s Latin text to an English translation and includes insightful commentary by map historian Robert Karrow. The “Examine Disc” consists of high-resolution scans of a copy in the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection of the Library of Congress. Readers can turn the pages of the 1595 Atlas, peruse its maps, and zoom in for a detailed look at the mapmaker’s conception of late sixteenth-century Europe.

Figure 3.6, a close-up centered on Duisburg, where the mapmaker lived, illustrates the content and graphic detail, but the Octavo images, in full color, convey a fuller sense of the hand coloring and textured paper. Warnock’s version also exemplifies the extension during the 1990s of the word atlas to include structured collections of viewable geographic data published on CDs or the Internet. Mercator’s simple five-letter word apparently expresses the concept more effectively than the tedious synonym geospatial database. Copyright notice: Excerpt from pages 31-46 of Rhumb Lines and Map Wars: A Social History of the Mercator Projection by Mark Monmonier, published by the University of Chicago Press. ©2004 by the University of Chicago. All rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that this entire notice, including copyright information, is carried and provided that the University of Chicago Press is notified and no fee is charged for access.

Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the University of Chicago Press. Mark Monmonier 1512: Famous Cartographer Mercator – The Man who Introduced the Term “Atlas” | History.info 1512: Famous Cartographer Mercator – The Man who Introduced the Term “Atlas” Photo Credit To He was actually born with the name Gerard de Kremer, and this name was later Latinized to Gerardus Mercator (the word “mercator” means “merchant” in Latin). The famed cartographer Gerardus Mercator was born on this day in 1512. He is of great historical significance because he was, by all accounts, the one who first used the term “atlas” to refer to a collection of maps. Mercator was born in the village of Rupelmonde, south of Antwerpen. Today this is part of the territory of Belgium, but in his time it was the County of Flanders, which belonged to Charles of Habsburg, the Duke of Austria, who later also became the Holy Roman Emperor and the King of Spain.

Gerardus Mercator was actually born with the name Gerard de Kremer, and this name was later Latinized to Gerardus Mercator (the word “mercator” means “merchant” in Latin). The Mercator projection in cartography is named after him, and remains the most widely-used projection on maps to this day. Mercator was also known for his globes, around 22 of which have been preserved. He named the term “atlas” after the mythical King Atlas of Mauritania, who was allegedly one of the founders of astronomy. Facebook Comments Gerardus Mercator’s 503rd Birthday | Doodle Finder Gerardus Mercator’s 503rd Birthday Birthday Michael Schilling Gerardus Mercator (born March 5, 1512) was a cartographer, philosopher and mathematician. He is best known for his work in cartography, in particular the world map of 1569 based on a new projection which represented sailing courses of constant bearing as straight lines. He was the first to use the term “atlas” for a collection of maps.

Gerardus Mercator: Google Doodle Gerardus Mercator during work at atlas Life and works Gerardus Mercator was born in the town of Rupelmonde where he was named Gerard de Kremer or de Cremer. He was raised in Gangelt in the Duchy of Jülich, the home town of his parents. Mercator is the Latinized form of his name which means “merchant”. He was educated in ‘s-Hertogenbosch by the famous humanist Macropedius and at the University of Leuven (both in the historical Duchy of Brabant). Despite Mercator’s fame as a cartographer, his main source of income came through his craftsmanship of mathematical instruments. In Leuven, he worked with Gemma Frisius and Gaspar Van Der Heyden (Gaspar Myrica) from 1535 to 1536 to construct a terrestrial globe, although the role of Mercator in the project was not primarily as a cartographer, but rather as a highly skilled engraver of brass plates.

Mercator’s own independent map-making began only when he produced a map of Palestine in 1537; this map was followed by another—a map of the world (1538) – and a map of the County of Flanders (1540). During this period he learned Italic script because it was the most suitable type of script for copper engraving of maps. He wrote the first instruction book of Italic script published in northern Europe. Gerardus Mercator was charged with heresy in 1544, on the basis of his sympathy for Protestant beliefs and suspicions about his frequent travels. He was in prison for seven months before the charges were dropped—possibly because of intervention from the university authorities. In 1552, he moved to Duisburg, one of the major cities in the Duchy of Cleves, and opened a cartographic workshop where he completed a six-panel map of Europe in 1554. He worked also as a surveyor for the city. His motives for moving to Duisburg are not clear. Mercator might have left Flanders for religious reasons or because he was informed of plans to found a university. He taught mathematics at the academic college of Duisburg.

In 1564, after producing several maps, he was appointed court cosmographer to Wilhelm, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg. In 1569, he devised a new projection for a nautical chart which had orthogonal lines of longitude, spaced evenly, and lines of latitude spaced so that sailing courses of constant bearing were represented as straight lines (loxodromes). Gerardus Mercator took the word atlas to describe a collection of maps, and encouraged Abraham Ortelius to compile the first modern world atlas – Theatrum Orbis Terrarum – in 1570. He produced his own atlas in a number of parts, the first of which was published in 1578 and consisted of corrected versions of the maps of Ptolemy (though introducing a number of new errors). Maps of France, Germany and the Netherlands were added in 1585 and of the Balkans and Greece in 1588; further maps were published by Mercator’s son, Rumold Mercator, in 1595 after the death of his father.

Gerardus Mercator learnt globe making from Gemma Frisius, and went on to become the leading European globe maker of the age. Twenty-two pairs of his globes (terrestrial globe and matching celestial globe) have survived. Following his move to Duisburg, Gerardus Mercator never left the city and died there, a respected and wealthy citizen. Legacy Gerardus Mercator is buried in Duisburg’s main church of Saint Salvatorus. Exhibits of his works can be seen in the Mercator treasury located in the city. More exhibits about Mercator’s life and work are featured at the Mercator Museum in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium. The famous sailing ship Mercator is named after Gerardus Mercator to honour his improvements in the area of naval navigation. The ship was build in 1932 and is currently used as a museum. 2012 marked the 500th anniversary of Mercator’s birth. On 4 March 2012, celebrations of Mercator’s life were held at his birthplace, Rupelmonde. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. List of the authors.

Gerardus Mercator - artelino artelino Flanders Historical Map Gerardus Mercator was a geographer, cartographer and mathematician born in Flanders. He is best known for a new mapping technique that bears his name, the Mercator projection. The quality of his maps made them a copy source for generations of mapmakers. Gerhard Kremer - alias Gerardius Mercator Gerard Mercator is something like the grandfather of modern map making. His original name was Gerhard Kremer. Regarding his importance for the history of cartography, he is compared to Ptolemy, the ancient scholar from Alexandria in Egypt. Mercator was born in Rupelmonde in Flanders and had studied geography, cartography and mathematics at the University of Leuven (Louvain) in Belgium. He published his first map in 1537 at the age of 25 - a map of Palestine. From 1537 to 1540 Gerardus Mercator surveyed and mapped Flanders. In 1538 he made and published his first world map. It was based on the Ptolemy map.

The maps by Ptolemy had been completely lost in Europe during the dark Middle Ages. Thanks to Arab scholars, some of the Ptolemy maps were saved and came back to Europe during the Renaissance period. The Mercator Projection In 1552 Gerardius Mercator moved to Duisburg to evade religious persecution. In 1554 he produced a map of six panels of Europe. In 1568 Mercator used a new way of displaying a map with 90 degree parallel lines for the latitudes and meridians. This new technique was actually not invented by Mercator. But he was the first cartographer to apply it. The Mercator projection was a great progress for navigation on sea. Its disadvantage is the disproportion of size. The closer the area towards the poles, the larger it is in size. Greenland for instance is shown 16 times larges than in reality. Mercator's main work, a three volume world atlas, was published in several editions from 1585 on and beyond his death in 1594. Mercator then was the first to use the word atlas.

In 1604 another famous cartographer, Jodocus Hondius had acquired Mercator's original plates and published several more editions. The subsequent generation of mapmakers more or less copied from Mercator's world atlas. Literature Sources for this article: Carl Moreland and David Bannister: Antique Maps, Phaidon Press Limited, ISBN 0-7148 2954 4. Author: Dieter Wanczura The Life And Death Of Gerardus Mercator - YouTube The Life And Death Of Gerardus Mercator Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

Published on Mar 6, 2015 Gerardus Mercator (born 5 March 1512 in Rupelmonde, County of Flanders (in modern Belgium), died 2 December 1594 in Duisburg, United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, (modern-day Germany)) was a cartographer, philosopher and mathematician. He is best known for his work in cartography, in particular the world map of 1569 based on a new projection which represented sailing courses of constant bearing as straight lines. He was the first to use the term "atlas" for a collection of maps. Mercator was born in the town of Rupelmonde where he was named Gerard de Kremer or de Cremer. He was raised in Gangelt in the Duchy of Jülich, the home town of his parents. Mercator is the Latinized form of his name which means "merchant". He was educated in 's-Hertogenbosch by the famous humanist Macropedius and at the University of Leuven (both in the historical Duchy of Brabant).

Despite Mercator's fame as a cartographer, his main source of income came through his craftsmanship of mathematical instruments. In Leuven, he worked with Gemma Frisius and Gaspar Van Der Heyden (Gaspar Myrica) from 1535 to 1536 to construct a terrestrial globe, although the role of Mercator in the project was not primarily as a cartographer, but rather as a highly skilled engraver of brass plates. Mercator's own independent map-making began only when he produced a map of Palestine in 1537; this map was followed by another—a map of the world (1538) – and a map of the County of Flanders (1540). During this period he learned Italic script because it was the most suitable type of script for copper engraving of maps. He wrote the first instruction book of Italic script published in northern Europe. Mercator was charged with heresy in 1544, on the basis of his sympathy for Protestant beliefs and suspicions about his frequent travels.[note 1] He was in prison for seven months before the charges were dropped—possibly because of intervention from the university authorities.

In 1552, he moved to Duisburg, one of the major cities in the Duchy of Cleves, and opened a cartographic workshop where he completed a six-panel map of Europe in 1554. He worked also as a surveyor for the city. His motives for moving to Duisburg are not clear. Mercator might have left Flanders for religious reasons or because he was informed of plans to found a university. He taught mathematics at the academic college of Duisburg. In 1564, after producing several maps, he was appointed court cosmographer to Wilhelm, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg. In 1569, he devised a new projection for a nautical chart which had orthogonal lines of longitude, spaced evenly, and lines of latitude spaced so that sailing courses of constant bearing were represented as straight lines (loxodromes). Mercator took the word atlas to describe a collection of maps, and encouraged Abraham Ortelius to compile the first modern world atlas – Theatrum Orbis Terrarum – in 1570.

He produced his own atlas in a number of parts, the first of which was published in 1578 and consisted of corrected versions of the maps of Ptolemy (though introducing a number of new errors). Maps of France, Germany and the Netherlands were added in 1585 and of the Balkans and Greece in 1588; further maps were published by Mercator's son, Rumold Mercator, in 1595 after the death of his father. Mercator learnt globe making from Gemma Frisius, and went on to become the leading European globe maker of the age. Twenty-two pairs of his globes (terrestrial globe and matching celestial globe) have survived. Following his move to Duisburg, Mercator never left the city and died there, a respected and wealthy citizen. Legacy Mercator is buried in Duisburg's main church of Saint Salvatorus. Exhibits of his works can be seen in the Mercator treasury located in the city. More exhibits about Mercator's life and work are featured at the Mercator Museum in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium.

The famous sailing ship Mercator is named after Gerardus Mercator to honour his improvements in the area of naval navigation. The ship was built in 1932 and is currently used as a museum. 2012 marked the 500th anniversary of Mercator's birth. On 4 March 2012, celebrations of Mercator's life were held at his birthplace, Rupelmonde. In 2015, a Google Doodle commemorated his 503rd birthday. Category

Question: Where was cartographer Gerardus Mercator born - the modern name of the country where he was born?
Answer: Belgium